“Blessings for the Year of the Pigs” is the theme of the 2019 Taichung Lantern Festival and will be presented from February 16 to February 24 at Taichung Wen-Hsin Forest Park for 9 days! The Taichung City Government has released the head lantern - “Imperial Flying Pig” and a limited quantity of the wing-flapping “Flying Pig Lanterns” today (January 30). The festival was unveiled by Mayor Lu Shiow-Yen who participated in the promotional event in person. She invited all the residents of Taichung to share the joy of the festival and to feel the creativity and vigor of the city.

The Taichung City Government held a press conference on the 2019 Taichung Lantern Festival today. Mayor Lu unveiled the head lantern, the “Imperial Flying Pig,,” and a limited quantity of “Flying Pig Lanterns” in the company of Director Lin Hsiao-Chi of the Tourism and Travel Bureau and Director Kao Si-Hsiang of the Economic Development Bureau of the city. The promotional footage with the participation and filming of Mayor Lu and Director Lin of the Tourism and Travel Bureau was also played and all were invited to watch the program to feel the creativity and vibrancy of Taichung.

The Taichung City Government has made the “Imperial Flying Pig” as the theme of the Lantern Festival not only to wish all the residents of Taichung a year of satisfaction, good luck and good fortune for the Year of the Pigs, but also call down blessings for economic prosperity and plenty. This “Imperial Flying Pig” symbolizes economic prosperity and is also an appeal to the public of Taichung for the “Flying Pig, Anno” brand held by Da’an District Agricultural Association of the city. This is also an occasion for promoting high quality meat products from Taichung, said Mayor Lu.

No small lanterns were released as in the Lantern Festival of last year that made many people feel sad, said Mayor Lu. The people of the city requested the release of the lanterns again this year with a Flying Pig as the design theme. People used to have a needle to move the small lever at the lower part of the lantern to trigger the motion of the mouth and the wings of the Flying Pig, which make it look like “the pig is flying.” This design gives the children the pleasure of hand motion.

The 2019 Taichung Lantern Festival will be the best of its kind in Taiwan and the small lanterns released by the city government as gifts will be the most amusing and lovely ones, emphasized Mayor Lu. All are welcome to Taichung to share the joy of the Chinese New Year at the Taichung Lantern Festival.

The theme of the 2019 Taichung Lantern Festival is closely associated with the “Taichung Image” and the Year of the Pig, and is a combination of the features of humanity, industry and points of attraction in its design. The result is the eruption of creativity. Further to the head lantern, there are 15 traditional lanterns featuring Taichung characters, 5 big inflated luminous creative lanterns each with a different theme, 12 lanterns with the leopard cat of the Floral Expo as the theme and 1 lantern featuring the Japanese Sandman in a fan shape. The whole environment will be brightly lit with the design of a lantern viewing corridor. The setting is glamorous, a venue that lights up the sky over Wen-Hsin Forest Park, according to Director Lin of the Tourism and Travel Bureau.

The highlight of the event is the head lantern show of the “Blessings for the Year of the Pig”, which starts from 7 pm to 10 pm on the hour every night. The time for each show is about 5 minutes and the show will be matched by the themes of the surrounding lanterns and special effects from light beams in the surrounding environment. The show of the head lantern is also highlighted by customized theme music and laser beams that present enchanted audiovisual effects, Director Lin explained further.

What the people are concerned most about is the small “Flying Pig Lantern” of this year, which was executed in the same shape as the head lantern. People just have to move the lever located at the lower part of the lantern to make the Flying Pig move its mouth and flap its wings. This lantern will be released to the public free of charge from the opening ceremony of the festival on February 16 to the day of the Lantern Festival on February 19 from 6pm every evening when the show starts. Only 150,000 lanterns will be given out while the quantity lasts, emphasized Director Lin.

In addition, Aomori-Ken, a Japanese sister city of Taichung, offered the fan shaped sandman lantern as its gift to the Taichung Lantern Festival, the same thing it has done since last year. Those who attended the festival event in the evening of the Lantern Festival may have the opportunity to line up for a small sandman lantern as gifts while the quantity lasts from Aomori-Ken of Japan.

The Taichung Lantern Festival is one of the major events of its kind in central Taiwan and has attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, according to the Tourism and Travel Bureau.

This event has been held in Wen-Hsin Forest Park since 2007 (The Year of the Pig) for 7 consecutive years, as the park is convenient for transportation. In addition, the park is also close to the mass rapid transit system, the State Opera House in Taichung, the Maple Garden, department stores trade circle and GongYi Road trade circle, which made it an ideal place for event of this kind for the public to enjoy their preference. The year 2019 is once again the Year of the Pigs, and it is also the 20th anniversary of the lantern festival. As such, it is particularly meaningful to hold the lantern festival in this park again. Seeing that the facilities of the mass rapid transit system in the neighborhood of the park are almost complete, the traffic problem in the neighborhood could be negligible. We hold the lantern festival in Wen-Hsin Forest Park again with a view to recalling the sweet public memories of the lantern festival, according to the Tourism and Travel Bureau.

Further to the laser beam attraction and lighting environment, entertainment delegations from Hayataro Onsen and Chikuma at Nagano-ken and Hirakawa of Aomori-Ken of Japan were invited to present traditional Japanese performances in variety shows of the opening ceremony to be held on February 16 and the Lantern Festival variety show to be held in the evening on February 19 at Fulfillment Amphitheatre of the park. The participation of these performers will help improve traditional cultural exchanges between Taichung and Japan. Famous entertainers like Hsiao Huang-Chi, Hsieh Ho-Hsuan, Drummer Lu Si-Wei, Eggplantegg, Hsu Fu-Kai, Wen Huei-Ru, Lin Chiao-An, Karencici and others were also invited to perform in the show and will definitely raise the level of joy at Taichung Lantern Festival to the maximum.

The organizer has prepared small gifts for the public to motivate them to give feedback about the event. Those who have filled in a questionnaire at the “Questionnaire Stand” during the festival will receive a small lovely Piggy Bank while the quantity lasts so that people could make a fortune together with this nostalgic Piggy Bank in the Chinese New Year. The public is invited to provide their valuable comments on the lantern festival.

The Tourism and Travel Bureau urges the public to use public means of transportation to the lantern festival and try not to use private vehicles as much as they can to avoid heavy traffic and traffic congestion or even illegal parking in the immediate area of the park during the festival. This also serves the purpose of keeping air quality good. Tourists from outside Taichung may take the train to the Taichung Railways Station and connect by buses to the venue of the event. The public is also encouraged to share rides and park their cars at the “Wen-Hsin Forest Park Parking Lot” and “Parking Lot 95” , as these two places could accommodate more vehicles. For further information on traffic, visit the official website of the event.

The Tourism and Travel Bureau will also arrange barrier-free motion lines for the handicapped to share the joy of the lantern viewing and arrange commuter bus service. The handicapped are advised to make reservations for the service 3 days in advance, as there are not enough vehicles of this kind available for the service and the organizer also tries to avoid empty vehicles waiting on line while others badly need the service.